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As our Spring Term comes to an end I cannot but fail to be amazed about how much the boys have achieved together in recent weeks.

The academic results at 13+ have been fantastic and this has been supported by progress and development in a host of different activities and events, including football, chess, public speaking, skiing, art competition, general knowledge, educational visits, eco club, skipping,  IT qualifications, newspaper / website designs and drama productions. Very best wishes to our cricket tourists who are off to  Antigua next week.

The ski trip was a tour de force. The boys were simply magnificent in their approach to the week. It was colder than normal yet no-one
complained. The standard of skiing was tremendous and a good
number of boys achieved the coveted gold standard, never achieved before at the school. A special mention must go to Adam Green on his fantastic jumping ability that led to the award of the Peter’s Cup. Henry Douch was definitely the young skier of the week, going from zero snow experience to competence on a black [steepest] run in six days, that demanded courage and skill in equal measure. Click here to see ski photos.

Congratulations to Vivek Midha on his fantastic achievement in the national general knowledge competition [fourth out of 1000 pupils country wide]. Also we were delighted with the standard of art work in this year’s art competition.

We are indeed entering historic times with the imminent opening of the new music school and theatre as well as our nursery at Merchant Taylors’ School. I hope as many can make our open house at the New Barn Theatre, Northwood Prep on Friday 18th April.
All best wishes for a restful Easter break.
Kind regards, as always

Congratulations to our artists for their school art competition entries, to our journalists for their Guardian Newspaper and Website entries, our poets for their recent recitation and our skiers who mastered the slopes of Alpe d’Huez.

Best wishes to our cricketers as they head off on the School’s first ever cricket tour to Antigua no less!

Individual mentions include Bashir Langhi (8MS) for winning this year’s Beale Poetry Recitation competition, Adam Green (8RW) who is awarded the Peters Skiing Cup, (Nikos Donegan (8RW), Saul Kelion (8RW) and Ashil Shah (8RW) for Subject Prizes in the recent MTS 13+ exams. Ashil is also Captain of Cricket for the Antigua Tour and of the 1st XI this season. Years 7 & 8 were  treated to a mesmerising skipping workshop this week as an aid to fitness and coordination.

All boys will receive an end of term Progress Report and we look forward to seeing parents at Target Setting on Monday, 14th April (PM). Happy holidays in the interim.

Thanks to all the staff that organised these fantastic events for the boys. Congratulations go to Vishay Patel (5T) and Rohin Shah (6F) who both performed admirably at the Watford Festival of Music, Speech and Drama. Vishay finished third with distinction and Rohin came first with distinction in their respective categories. Thomas McAulay represented Fullarians in a rugby festival recently and helped his side to come second and received a medal on the day, with his team, for this achievement. Well done to all these boys. Congratulations to Rohan Pau (3B) & Ben Stewart (3B), Hao-Lam Chan (4J) & Nikil Shah (4J) and Tarun Malhotra (4J) for winning the chess trophies in their respective age groups this term.   Congratulations to Kai Patel (3E) and Rishav Shah (6J) for winning the art competition in their respective categories. Sport is very important to boys and the following links may be useful to help develop their skills further outside of school.

Football     
http://www.croxleyguildyfc.co.uk/                 

Rugby    
http://www.fullerians.demon.co.uk

Cricket
http://www.langleyburycc.co.uk
http://www.eastcotecricketclub.com
http://www.northwoodcc.co.uk/,
http://harefield.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp, http://www.ickenhamcc.com/

On more routine matters: Please check that your son has his games clothing. If he has inadvertently picked up another boys kit, please can it be returned a.s.a.p. to the correct owner. If you need to see a teacher or collect your son early please remember to call in at the office so that they can phone down. Finally I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a safe and Happy Easter.

The choir sang a couple of numbers from ‘Jungle Book’ plus a very moving hymn ‘I watch the sunrise’. It is so important that they get the chance to develop their confidence and perform in public. We were also treated to an Easter themed assembly with Reverend Barlett last week and he reminded the boys of the events of Holy Week that lead up to the Christian Festival of Easter. Year 1 had the pleasure of the company of Sebastian’s mother, Mrs Tempest, on Friday and she very kindly explained to the boys all about ears and hearing as part of their science topic of ‘light and sound’. The photographs show our skipping workshops from the beginning of this week, with Nikhil Kapadia demonstrating his individual skipping skills and Daniel Shwartz-Briskin showing the boys how to ‘Double Dutch’. We hope that lots of boys have bought  skipping ropes so that they can practise at home. Please remember that we are collecting both Tesco and Sainsbury’s vouchers in Junior School. Have a peaceful holiday everyone!

The teachers, children,
speedy the snail and
Terry the teddy are excited to be moving
to our new nursery.

From Monday 14th April our new address will be:

Northwood Prep Nursery
Merchant Taylors’ School
Sandy Lodge, Northwood
Middlesex.  HA6 2HT

Judging an event such as this is always hard, particularly so this year as the standard of work was extremely high. My thanks go to Miss Bricknall, Mrs Johnson, Miss Edwards and Miss Bangert for their help in choosing the winners.
The winning entries are:

Y3 & 4
1st place Kai Patel
2nd place Jacob Sieradzki
3rd place Dheeraj Sara
Highly commended: Anooj Metha, Nikil Khetani, Aanand Daryanani, Nikil Shah, Govind Grewal

Y5 & 6
1st place Rishav Shah
2nd place Reubin Bhogal
3rd place Shamil Shah
Highly commended: Tommy Barker, Gus Machado, Kavan Kothari, Alex McCormick & Dhian Sara

Y7 & 8
1st place Tahseen Choudhury2nd place Tsukasa Yamano
3rd place Akshay Doshi
Highly commended: Arjun Rajani, Thomas Marsh, Daniel Sieradski, Ashil Shah, Saul Kelion

A very big well done to all those boys who took part.

Pictured above ‘A city of the future’Tahseen Choudhury Y7 & 8 winner

Congratulations go to;

Gishean Thayaparan for completing modules 1, 2 & 7 and achieving the British Computer Society Level1 for IT Users.

Kavan Kothari for passing Module 3

Rishil Kota for passing Module 3

Reverend Bartlett showed us everything on the altar: the crucifix and the Bible on a stand (normally it sits on the eagle-shaped lectern.)
We noticed two glass bottles with liquids, one dark red and one transparent, which were wine and water. Also, there was a wooden container with  wafers (unleavened bread) inside. The wine represents Christ’s blood and the bread represents his body.  But we didn’t know what the water was for.  He explained to us that after Jesus died on the cross, a Roman soldier poked him with a sword to check if he was dead, and when he did so, blood and water came from his body. He gave us a wafer to pass along.
He showed us the giant paschal candle which is replaced every Easter.  He explained about the Greek letters on the candle: the first, A (alpha), and the last, W (omega), just like Jesus who is the beginning as well as the end.  He told us about the stained glass window and how it tells a story about Jesus’ life.

He chose four boys to model the vestments: Dhian’s green chasuble represents living things, Kavan’s purple chasuble is worn during Lent and Advent, Tara’s gold chasuble is worn at Christmas and Easter, and Freddie’s bright red chasuble represents the Holy Spirit falling down like fire on the apostles.  They were stunning colours!

Reverend Bartlett led us through the choir stalls, past the large stone altar and into the Lady Chapel where people pray to Mary.  The stained glass windows describe stories about Mary. We had a question and answer session: Reverend Bartlett told us what he does in his spare time (he plays the trombone) and how much he likes his job.  Finally, as we walked out, we saw an exquisite model of the church. Outside, we all saw Francis John Terry’s gravestone. We had a great morning at Holy Trinity and we would like to say thank you to all of the teachers who helped, and especially Reverend Bartlett who made the visit possible.

It was a long journey to the museum but we made it eventually.
As soon as we went into the museum we heard a loud shout, “Does anymore need the privy?” We did not know what she meant but Oliver said, “Toilet!” She said she was Florence Nightingale but everyone knew that she wasn’t. We pretended she was. Next she told us about her life. Then we explored the museum. We had to do worksheets and it was great fun.

Writing by
Aryaman Jhunjhunwala and
photograph of Brij Kantaria